26.02.2025 | Sergi Gonzàlez Herrero | SLF News
SLF scientist Sergi González-Herrero is conducting research in Antarctica for two months. From there, he regularly reports in Catalan for the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI) to get young students aged between twelve and sixteen involved in science. The SLF also publishes his articles.
I am writing these words during my last day on the white continent. The adventure is now almost over, and I need to say goodbye to the long sunny and cold days, the snow-covered ice and these mountains that look as if they are from another planet. I will miss the feeling of working with my feet dangling and my temporary “office” overlooking Utsteinen, the nunatak, an isolated mountain rising through the ice, dominating the landscape. But I know that this is not a “goodbye” but a “see you later”. Time and again my work has taken me to this continent, and probably will do so again at some point.
On one of my last days Antarctica said goodbye to me with one of the most beautiful views of the season. We saw an altocumulus lenticularis, a very characteristic cloud that forms with strong winds over the mountains. It appeared isolated over Utsteinen. I imagined the surface of Antarctica as a large ocean of ice and placed my little ship figurine of the Fram that was gifted to me on the snow, pretending it was sailing on it. Fram is the name of the ship that carried Amundsen, a Norwegian Polar researcher from 1910-1912 to Antarctica.
In my previous Antarctica campaign, I sailed along the Antarctic coast looking for wind-borne microorganisms and, in this campaign, I was based in the Antarctic mainland looking for wind-borne snow particles.
I leave with the satisfaction of having achieved 100 percent of my objectives and some more that I did not expect. Here are some of my campaign milestones:
- 57 days of campaign
- 18 instruments installed
- More than 30 hours of work hanging from a rope
- 1755 photographs of the snow
- 6 snow profiles
- About 20,000 kg of snow shovelled
- Countless sastrugis (irregularities of the snow that look like dunes in the desert) crossed
- 0 penguins sighted
However, it is good to make it clear that such a job cannot be done alone. There were many people involved in different ways who I want to thank for making in this project possible. First of all, my boss, Michi, who had the idea to set up this tower and Hendrik; both of them designed the station with me. I’d like to thank the colleagues in the Snow Processes and CRYOS group, and especially Armin, who has always supported me before and during the assembly. Rainette, Anja and Romeo, who set up the test station in Davos with me. The electronics team colleagues Michi, Chasper and specially Carlos who wired the station in Davos, and the workshop colleagues Benni, Urs and Silvio who made all the assembly materials for me. Marion who organised the shipment of the materials, and Lara and Tatjana who helped me with the packaging. All the mates and technicians of the Princess Elizabeth station team, especially Henri, Benoit, Simond, François, Martin and Manu who helped me set up the station and instruments over the mast. The IT teams of both Davos and Princess Elizabeth who are working now to repatriate the data. The communication team of Recerca en Acció with Marc Portella and from SLF with Cornelia, Jochen, Martin and Roman who have echoed all my activities during the campaign. And also, the Davos cafeteria team, Marco, Bernd, Evelyne and Suseela who served me coffees and meals while I prepared the station so that I could focus on working. Probably even more people that I have not in mind right now: Thank you!
I hope these blogs have inspired a kid or young person to become a future scientist and help contribute to an improved understanding of our world. Perhaps one of you will help improve the wellbeing of humanity with new discoveries one day. Meanwhile, to say goodbye to Antarctica, I leave you with a video of the new blowing snow tower in its finally installed form.
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